


The Strangeness of the Cosmos (Is Part of Its Charm)

by EnthusiasticFish



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, Science Fiction, Team, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnthusiasticFish/pseuds/EnthusiasticFish
Summary: A forest. But not. A strange case. And a single misstep throws the team into an indescribable experience. Features the team equally.This was written for a fic exchange. The request was for something with the theme of "We're not in Kansas anymore." I really ran with it (and had a LOT of fun) and this is a weird one. The plot is almost impossible to explain. Be prepared for some strangeness if you venture.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**The Strangeness of the Cosmos (Is Part of Its Charm)  
** by Enthusiastic Fish

_Our judgment therefore comes down to which we find more wasteful and inelegant: many worlds or many words. Perhaps we will gradually get used to the weird ways of our cosmos and find its strangeness to be part of its charm.  
_ _~Max Tegmark_

**Chapter 1**

It was a forest. It should have looked like any other forest, but it didn't.

Because it wasn't any other forest.

There were little hints everywhere that it wasn't any other forest.

One was the silence. Nature does not tend toward silence unless completely devoid of living things. Silence, at least in a material medium, implies a lack of change. Even the slightest breeze moving through a forest creates sound waves. Compression and rarefaction that is carried to any sensor, be it human, animal or mechanical. That is the nature of things.

...or is it?

One was the color. Green trunks. Brown leaves. Not instantly wrong, but just enough.

One was the absence of any real ground. One assumes a ground because there is a surface being walked on. But there is no ground. There is merely sky. Everywhere that is not trees.

And then, into the midst of this forest that was not like any other, came something else wrong.

She was dead, of course. She knew it. No one would be surprised to find out, but that didn't seem to matter here.

She looked around for the reason she was here.

The forest was empty. She moved...sort of. Everywhere she was had no inhabitants.

Finally, she looked at her wrist. There was a watch there. What kind of time it was telling...well, that wasn't something she shared out.

She looked and then looked again.

Finally, it dawned on her.

_I'm early._

She swore to herself...quickly apologized...and then vanished.

The forest was still empty.

For the moment.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_Here and now..._

"Grab your gear," Gibbs snapped, not even pausing as he walked through the bullpen.

Tony, Tim and Ziva looked at each other for a second and then jumped up, grabbing their bags and running after Gibbs. None of them wanted to be left behind when the elevator door closed. One never knew when this might be a test.

"You got the camera, right?" Tony muttered to Tim in a low voice as they headed for the truck.

"Yes. Got it."

"Good. Gibbs doesn't seem in a very good mood."

"Is he _ever_ really in a good mood?" Tim asked. "He always seems kind of irritated."

"Don't say _that_ very loudly," Tony said.

"I wouldn't dare," Tim said.

"What are you talking about?" Ziva asked in a normal voice.

"Nothing!" Tony said, glaring at her.

She grinned. "Really?"

"Really."

"Well, I would not waste time. Gibbs does not seem to be in a good mood."

Tony smiled at Tim in triumph. The exact same thing he'd just said.

"Where are we going, Boss?" Tim asked, seeing Gibbs stalking toward them.

"Rock Creek," Gibbs said.

"Again?" Tony asked. "They should just tell the Navy people to stay out of there. I swear that more petty officers end up dead there than anywhere else in the world."

"This one did stay out," Gibbs said.

"What do you mean, Gibbs?" Ziva asked.

"Marine supposedly vanished into thin air," Gibbs said. "Let's go."

The three looked at each other for a second. Into thin air?

"Are you waiting for an invitation? Let's go!" Gibbs repeated.

"On your six, Boss," Tony said.

They hurried after him, wondering what they'd see.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"I'm seeing nothing but the park," Tony said, when they arrived. "Boss, I don't want to ask a stupid question, but..."

Tim suppressed a snort.

"Don't start with me, Probie," Tony said.

"What, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"How do we investigate someone who is supposed to have literally disappeared?"

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Right. I'll figure it out as I go," Tony said and started to look around.

"Where was he supposed to have disappeared?" Tim asked, camera in hand, trying to sound merely questioning, not skeptical.

Gibbs pointed to where the Metro police had put up caution tape. Tim nodded and walked over to the spot. It didn't look like anything had happened. It didn't look strange. It didn't look different. It was just there. A patch of grass off the trail. A couple of trees. Tim wasn't sure what he was supposed to document, but he decided to take a few photos of the area anyway. That way Gibbs wouldn't be able to accuse him of not being thorough.

As he worked, he listened to Ziva and Gibbs as they spoke to the Metro police, getting an update on what was supposed to have happened. A Marine out running in the park, suddenly vanishing before the eyes of two other runners. Not just one. Two. There had been cases of deception spreading to a group before, but two people witnessing the same thing lent more credibility to it in Tim's mind, even if it didn't matter so much legally.

He took pictures all around and then was about to go and join Tony where he was checking the running path when he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned quickly.

For just a moment, he could have sworn that the ground had disappeared in one small area. He had been looking and it had just been sky. But that was impossible. He started toward that spot but paused when Ducky and Jimmy pulled up.

"Hey, Ducky," Tony called. "What brings you here? There's no body!"

Ducky got out of the truck.

"What do you mean? We were told to come here," Ducky said. "Isn't that right, Mr. Palmer?"

"Yeah. There's a Marine, isn't there?"

"Well, there _was_ , but he's not here and we don't know that he's dead."

"What are _you_ doing, then?"

"Finding evidence of the guy disappearing like David Copperfield," Tony said.

"Oh, I loved David Copperfield when I was a kid," Jimmy said, enthusiastically. "I still want to know how he made the Statue of Liberty disappear. Or how he walked through the Great Wall of China. I mean I know it's all a trick of some kind, but I'd _love_ to know how he managed it."

"Well, I do not think he was involved here," Ziva said, walking over to them. "I am afraid you have wasted your time coming, Ducky. Actually, we _all_ may have wasted our time. There seems to be nothing more than the word of two people who swear he disappeared."

"Perhaps," Ducky agreed. "However, it is intriguing to think what has led to this. I was just telling Mr. Palmer about the debate of whether reality is continuous or discrete and whether we can truly observe causation. It has large implications for how we approach the whole concept of science."

"Later, Duck," Gibbs said. "You might as well head back."

Ducky glanced over at Tim who waved cheerfully.

"So it would seem. Well, there is another body waiting to be processed. I suppose we will now have time to work on it, Mr. Palmer."

Tim turned his attention back on that small patch and he headed toward it.

"You got something, McGee?" Tony asked.

"Don't know," Tim said. "I thought I saw..."

"Saw what?"

Tim stepped closer to it and he truly felt like he was somehow staring down at the sky while at the same time standing on the ground.

"Can you see this?" Tim asked.

"See what?"

He took one more step, but he stumbled over a tree root he hadn't noticed.

...and he fell into the sky.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"McGee!" Tony shouted and ran toward where Tim had suddenly...

...vanished into thin air.

"Tony, what is it?" Ziva asked.

"Tim just disappeared!" Tony said.

He ran and tripped over the same offending tree root. He heard sounds coming after him but they were cut off as he fell into the sky.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs and Ziva froze as they watched Tony fall into nothing.

"What just happened?" Ziva asked.

Gibbs pulled out his gun and approached the spot where both Tim and Tony had vanished.

"Jethro, be careful," Ducky said, in concern from behind him.

"Ducky, don't follow us," he said. "Ziva, come on."

Ziva nodded, looking more than a little unsettled. She wasn't one who generally dealt with anything outside her experience. She'd seen and done so much that very little bothered her. Now, she was definitely bothered, but Gibbs wasn't going into this without backup.

They walked toward the spot where Tony and Tim disappeared. They both paused.

"I see sky, Gibbs," Ziva said. "Where there should be ground, I see sky."

"That's where they've gone. Come on."

Another step forward, and Gibbs suddenly thought he heard a voice...one he hadn't heard in years.

...because the person the voice belonged to was long dead.

" _Hurry up, Gibbs!"_

"Kate..." he whispered and stepped into the sky.

"Gibbs...wait fo–!"

He heard Ziva behind him, but as soon as he stepped into the sky, her voice cut off, as if someone had turned off a radio.

...and then, he looked around and realized that things were even more strange than he had initially thought. People randomly disappearing was strange enough, but this was a step further.

...because he was currently standing on the sky, but there were trees growing out of the sky, and the trees were the wrong color and the sky kept changing every time he tried to focus on it and...

" _About time, Gibbs. You're usually so prompt."_

...and Kate was standing there, staring at him like no time had passed at all.

"Kate," he said again.

Kate smiled at him.

" _Yes. I'm glad you at least remember who I am. I got here early, but you were almost late...and the multiverse doesn't like it when you're late."_

The word she used completely passed over his head and Gibbs chose to ignore it as he usually did any kind of science babble.

"What's going on?" he asked.

" _Good question, but it's one I can't answer."_

"Then, why are you here?"

" _To bug you. It's been long enough and I rarely got that chance while I was alive anyway."_

"Where's everyone else?"

" _Where_ aren't _they? That's a better question."_

Gibbs rolled his eyes.

" _There are rules, Gibbs. If you were in my position, you'd have to follow them, too."_

"Your position?"

" _Being dead. But ask yourself why I can be here talking to you."_

"So...where aren't they?"

" _They aren't with you. But if things were like you expect them to be, you should all be together, right? You all stepped through the same spot at nearly the same time."_

Gibbs began to think about what Kate was saying. She was standing right there. He knew she was dead, but she was right there. He couldn't resist.

He reached out to touch her...and he waved his hand through her torso. Kate smiled at the gesture.

" _I'm no more corporeal here than I would be anywhere else. But what you need to do is start looking for everyone."_

"Don't _you_ know where they are?"

" _No. Do you even know where_ you _are, Gibbs?"_

Gibbs smiled a little. Kate smiled back, but then, she sobered.

" _You don't have an unlimited amount of time, Gibbs. You'd better get moving."_

"Moving where?"

" _Out of here before it's too late. That's all I can say. Oh, and when you find Tim tell him to start thinking about probabilities. Really really tiny probabilities. I'll be back later."_

Then, she vanished.

"Kate!" he said. Too late. She was gone.

Gibbs looked around. It felt like he was hovering in midair. No, it didn't _feel_ that way. It _looked_ that way. It felt like he was just standing on the ground. It was just that all the information coming into his senses said otherwise. He was surrounded by sky...and trees. Why trees? Why was he seeing trees here? Where was _here_ anyway?

He looked back, half-expecting to see Rock Creek Park. He didn't. Just more sky and trees.

Could he even walk here?

Nothing to do but try. If Kate was right, there was some kind of time limit. No sense in standing around.

He took a breath.

...and took a step.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

He was currently hanging onto a tree branch, but quite frankly, he was beginning to question whether or not that was necessary. Nothing seemed right here.

_Where is here?_

That was a question he couldn't answer, but if he let go of this tree branch, would he fall forever, given that there seemed to be no ground? That was a question he _could_ answer, but only if he chose to let go.

_Maybe I could drop something else..._

There was an additional question, though.

Right at this moment, he didn't really know why nothing seemed right. He couldn't currently drag up anything to compare it to...not consciously at least. He didn't know why that was, nor why it didn't really bother him.

He was wearing a hat, though. He could drop that.

How to get it off his head. What would help was a nice stiff breeze right in his face that would catch the brim and lift it off.

A gust of wind blew through the trees.

...right in his face, catching the brim of his hat and blowing it away, beyond his view so that he couldn't see what it did.

His eyes widened.

Coincidence?

" _You know how Gibbs feels about coincidences."_

"Who was that?" he said, speaking aloud for the first time.

His voice sounded strange.

" _Let go of the tree. You won't fall."_

"Promise?" he asked the voice. Twisting around to try and see who was speaking to him.

" _I promise."_

He let go of the branch.

And he just stood in the air, feeling both a little freaked out and a little silly for having been hanging there for however long. Then, he looked around. He couldn't see the source of the voice.

"Hello? Uh...why am I...wherever I am? Hello?"

There was no reply.

He looked around again. Then, he thought back to what the voice had said. Gibbs. She had said Gibbs.

She? Yes, it had definitely been a female voice.

Okay. Gibbs. Who was that?

"And I didn't say anything out loud. How did she know what I was thinking?"

Come to think of it, there were a lot of things not making sense.

"If I didn't have to worry about falling, why was I hanging? How did I get to that point?"

And another question.

"Why am I talking to myself? And why does my voice sound so strange?"

It really was like he was standing in a cave or something, not in the air, somehow surrounded by trees.

Basically, nothing made sense, from himself to the world around him and he wasn't very happy about that.

_Can I walk?_

That was the next question. If he was standing in the air, could he conceivably move to somewhere else? ...did he really want to find out the answer to the question? The last time he'd thought of a solution, it had happened out of nowhere. He grabbed a tree leaf. It was brown, almost black, but pliant. It wasn't dead. Just dark brown. He looked at it.

 _I want this leaf to turn green,_ he thought.

Then, without any fanfare, the leaf turned green. Bright, neon green.

He swallowed loudly and took a breath, afraid of the implications of being somewhere that he could make things happen just by thinking about them.

 _What if I fall,_ he thought.

And he took a step.

And he fell.

Up.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Ziva looked around, very irritated that everyone seemed to be hiding from her. She had followed Gibbs just a second after he had stepped through whatever he had stepped through.

And now, she was alone.

"Gibbs! Tony! McGee!" she called out, trying to sound only irritated and not concerned.

She ignored the fact that she was standing in the sky and walked as far as she could...which she discovered was not very far. She ran into a wall or rather a solid piece of sky after only a few steps. She began to follow that wall, touching it with her hand since she couldn't see anything that would indicate a wall or other type of obstruction.

"Gibbs!" she called again.

Her voice sounded confined. It was hard to square what she heard with what she saw. Her senses seemed to be contradicting each other.

The worst of it was that she couldn't see the way she'd come in, either. She could swear that she had walked all the way around the small space and yet there was no sign of an entrance...or exit.

The more she walked around, the more she felt like a caged animal. Her heart began to pound in her chest as she wondered what more she could do.

" _You can do nothing as you act now."_

She spun around.

"Who is that?" she demanded. "Show yourself!"

Then, she heard a song, one that she had not heard in many years. The lilting melody was both beautiful and painful.

" _Ein Adir KeAdonai."_

It was an impossible thought, but it was one that she couldn't dismiss once she'd thought of it. The song continued on, although the singer wasn't visible.

"Tali," she whispered.

And then, she suddenly remembered what Gibbs had said just before he had vanished.

He had spoken the name of someone who had died.

"Tali. Is that you?"

" _Ziva, you have changed. Not all for the better."_

She looked around, wondering if she was going insane or if this was really happening.

" _It is happening, Ziva. You must let go of your determination not to show your fear. Fear is not a bad thing in its place."_

"Fear is weakness," Ziva said, still unsure if she could believe that this was real.

" _Fear forces the mind to cast about for something more than what it might assume is true. Ziva, you are trapped because your mind is trapped in what you allow to be real. This is not a place where you can rely on what you have always known. This is nothing you have known. If you wish to escape it, you must be willing to let go of what you have known."_

"Tali, if you are really here, let me see you."

" _Not right now, Ziva. You have to let me be seen. It is you who are making it impossible Not me. You must let go."_

"Let go of what?"

" _Everything."_

Then, she sensed that Tali was gone, whether she'd really been here before or not.

Let go? What in the world was she supposed to let go of?

She looked around and then she looked at herself, at the gun she was holding in her hand still, gripping it tightly, almost like it was going to save her.

_I can let go of this. ...but if I do I am depriving myself of a weapon. Why would that be necessary?_

And yet... what good was it really doing her here? It was a crutch, nothing more.

Decision made, she threw the gun to the side.

It didn't fall. It just hung in the air. Ziva stared at it.

It didn't fall.

Again, she looked around.

_Where am I?_

If it was necessary to let go of everything, then, she would have to let go of how she expected things to go. Could she do that? Ziva knew that she wasn't always very good at letting in new ideas. It seemed important, though.

She closed her eyes.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

" _Tony, wake up!"_

Tony sat up and looked around. He could have sworn that he had just leaned against one of these weird trees for a second.

" _No seconds here, Tony. Stop being a lazy butt and get moving."_

"I'd recognize that voice anywhere," Tony said, getting to his feet. "Kate?"

" _Yes. You're pretty quick on the uptake today, Tony. What's that all about?"_

Tony grinned, even as he warred with deciding whether he was happy about hearing Kate's voice or not.

There was a low chuckle.

" _You're not dead, Tony, if that's what's worrying you, but you could be if you don't get a move on. Or you could be worse than dead and I don't want that, either."_

Tony turned and thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Kate...if you're here, where are you?"

" _I'm right behind you, Tony. That's where I'll always be unless you can figure out how to see me."_

"I don't get it."

" _You don't have to. Just accept that you'll only see me if you can. Right now, you can't."_

"I almost did."

" _Good. Keep working on it."_

"What's going on?"

" _I can't tell you that, but I can tell you that it's serious and if you do too much joking, you might not ever get out of here."_

"Where is here? I mean, I'd just about decided that I hit my head on something when I tripped and if I went to sleep, I'd wake up in a hospital or something."

" _No, you didn't hit your head, but Tim did, and that's bad. You need to find him."_

"Hit his head? On what?"

" _I don't know. I wasn't there when it happened."_

"Why isn't he right here? He was only just ahead of me."

" _That doesn't matter! Nothing that you expect matters. The only thing you can expect is for things not to make sense, but you need to work within the parameters...only, I don't know what they are, either."_

"But...you're dead and all, aren't you?"

" _Dead doesn't mean omniscient, DiNozzo. I'm helping as much as I'm allowed."_

"Allowed? By whom?"

" _Focus, Tony!"_

Then, there was a very strange vision of a hand in front of his face, but with the hand connected to a wrist that appeared to be protruding from around about his nose. It vanished quickly and there was some very unladylike swearing.

" _Sorry. I forgot that I can't give you a Gibbs slap like you deserve."_

"Gibbs doesn't really do that much anymore. Good thing, too. I think I was on the verge of brain damage."

" _Just get moving. Please?"_

Tony looked around, wondering where he was supposed to move _to_ when there didn't appear to be anywhere to go.

"How?"

" _Very good question. Just try, Tony. You need to find Tim and Gibbs and probably Ziva, too."_

"Probably?"

" _She's not on my list, but that doesn't mean she's not on someone else's."_

"Another dead person? Like who? Ari?"

" _No. Someone more important to her. I'm just a name on a page. I'll check back in later, Tony. Please, get out of this."_

Tony thought he heard something and he turned quickly, catching just a glimpse of dark hair. He smiled to himself. Almost. Next time.

Then, he turned his attention to the space around him. This really didn't make any sense. Tim should have been right there.

...unless he fell?

But why would he fall when Tony himself didn't seem to be falling anywhere, in spite of the fact that there was nothing to stand on?

He looked down.

And he suddenly realized that the trees didn't seem to end, either. There were trees and branches and leaves and everything, but there didn't appear to be any roots. Why?

_Well, if there's no ground, what good would roots do?_

Then, he looked down again and he thought he saw something moving. Something. Some _one_?

How far down was that?

How would he get down there?

If he started to fall, could he stop?

What if he couldn't stop? Would he keep falling forever or was there a bottom?

But what would happen when he hit the bottom?

He put his hand down and felt all around his feet. Nope. There was nothing. No surface that was just cleverly disguised. He really was standing on nothing.

Well, if there was nothing, then, he should be able to get through it without too much trouble. Maybe he could use the trees to push himself down since he was just sitting there without falling.

And there was something or someone below him.

Okay. No more sitting around. Time to get moving.

If he could.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Kate went back to where Tim had been...and he wasn't there.

" _Tim!"_

She looked around and didn't see him.

" _Tim!"_

Then, something made her look up and there he was. Far above her. She sighed with relief and hurried to get to where he was. He was lying, facing away from her. Of course. But he wasn't moving.

" _Tim. Are you all right?"_

"Oh, hello, voice," he said, sounding more than a little strange. "This place is really weird. Look what I can do!"

" _Tim?"_

"I want the trees to be...red with pink polka dots!"

Kate looked around and was surprised that the trees were exactly as he had asked.

"But watch this!" Tim said. "I want the trees to go away."

Nothing happened.

"Some things won't change. I've tried everything I can to make them go away, but they won't. And when I try to go somewhere, I fall up. I landed on a branch. It hurt."

Kate winced. If Tim had hit his head again, no wonder he was more than a little off kilter.

"But I can do other things. I want it to be windy!"

The trees started waving in a stiff breeze.

"I want it to stop being windy."

The trees stilled.

" _That's interesting, Tim."_

"I think that means something."

" _What?"_

"I think it means that the trees are real, but nothing else is. I don't know what's going on, but I don't think I'm special enough to control reality. I'm controlling perception."

Kate smiled. That sounded like Tim, only still out of whack.

" _Tim, what do you know?"_

"I know...that I don't really like it here, and that it feels wrong, but I don't know why it feels wrong. I know that I'm not going to try to go anywhere because I'm tired of falling up. I know that I don't like that you're just a voice. It makes me feel lonely."

Kate could hear a little petulance in Tim's voice, but she could also understand that Tim had nothing to rely on to tell him what reality was.

" _I'm going to make sure you're not lonely, Tim."_

"Really?"

" _Yes. Just stay here and don't move."_

"Okay. I don't want to keep falling up anyway."

" _Good."_

Kate started to leave.

"Voice?"

" _Yes, Tim?"_

"Do you have a name?"

" _I do, but I can't tell you what it is. You have to know it."_

"Oh. Okay."

Kate smiled sympathetically and headed off to find someone else.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs looked around and was surprised that it looked like he hadn't moved anywhere. He knew he'd walked, but nothing seemed to have happened. The trees were the same. The sky was still constantly changing. It was like he hadn't moved at all.

" _You haven't."_

He turned around and there was Kate, looking the same as she ever had.

"You read my mind."

" _You think very loudly, Gibbs,"_ Kate said, grinning. _"And you're actually much more chatty in your head than out loud. But you're not moving because you don't really believe this is real."_

"It isn't."

" _It is. It's just that it's not the reality you're used to. You need to accept that, Gibbs. Otherwise, you won't get anywhere."_

"Why?"

" _I can't answer that. I wish I could, but I can't. You need to find Tim. It's really important."_

"And DiNozzo isn't?"

Kate grinned.

" _I've already talked to Tony. He's actually very well-suited for this. You all need to find each other, but Tim has an extra problem and if you don't find him, he won't get out."_

"Why not?" Gibbs asked. If anyone would be able to deal with something that seemed like science fiction, he figured that Tim would be the one.

" _Tim hit his head when he fell, and I think he may have hit it again by falling again. Even in a normal situation, that would be bad, but this time, he has no reality that he can use to ground himself. I think that, if this happened in the reality you're used to, he would be disoriented, but with the stimuli he expects, he'd be quickly grounded. He doesn't have that here. That means that he's just sitting there, accepting that this is all he knows, knowing that it's not right, but having nothing to put in its place. Gibbs! He needs to be found by someone!"_

"Then, where is he?"

" _Not here, Gibbs. Get your mind in gear!"_

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. It appeared that death had removed any of Kate's worry about getting on his bad side.

" _You won't have a bad side to_ be _on if you don't figure this out. I know you're a smart guy, Gibbs. You just have to be willing think outside the box. You know how to do that. This is just_ really _outside the box. You're not where you want to be. You can do this, Gibbs. You're the only one who can actually see me."_

Gibbs was so confused by what Kate had said that he actually responded aloud.

"What?"

" _Tony can almost see me. Tim can't see me at all. You've just accepted what you're seeing. That's important."_

Gibbs stared at her.

" _I can't say any more than that. I've got to go. Gibbs, you can do this."_

Then, she was gone. No gradual fading out. She was there. Then, she wasn't.

He looked around. This wasn't just outside the box. There wasn't even a box in sight, and Gibbs found that there were limits to how out of the box he went. At the same time, he also did what was necessary. That's what he had got out of being a Marine. It didn't matter if you could do it or not. If you had to, you just did it. So it didn't matter that none of this made sense. What mattered was that he get moving. He hadn't moved yet, and he needed to.

_Maybe if I close my eyes._

He liked approaching things with his eyes wide open. Right or wrong, he was going to see what the fallout of his choices was. Still, if he was going outside the box, if he was throwing away the box completely, then, he had to do things differently.

He closed his eyes.

...and he tried to take a step again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Ziva was surprised when she didn't run into anything. She had been walking for quite some time and yet she hadn't hit a single tree. Why not? She hadn't felt the trees being close, either. But they were quite close together and so she should at least have brushed against one or two, but she wasn't.

She was also counting her steps and she realized that she had walked far beyond the boundaries of wherever she'd been. Why? Why could she walk when she couldn't see?

"Ziva? Is that you?"

Shocked at hearing a real voice (and slightly disappointed that it wasn't Tali again), Ziva opened her eyes quickly and looked around.

"Tony?" she asked, softly.

"It's got to be you, I don't know anyone else who has such bushy hair. McGee doesn't. Gibbs _definitely_ doesn't, and I really hope I'm not looking at myself, so..."

"Tony, where are you?" Ziva asked more loudly, ready to be irritated if she couldn't see Tony, just like she couldn't see Tali.

"Look up, Ziva!"

Confused, Ziva looked up and far above was Tony. He seemed to be climbing down to her on a tree. Surrounded by never-ending sky.

"Tony...what..."

Tony grinned.

"Don't ask me. I have no idea. And Kate seemed to think that she had limits to what she could explain."

"Kate?" Ziva repeated incredulously. "Gibbs said something about Kate before he came...here."

"Did he? So who did you almost see?"

"I did not _almost_ see anyone," Ziva said.

Tony continued to climb towards her.

"Oh, so you saw him or her completely?"

"No. I saw no one."

"Then, who did you _hear_?"

"Who says I heard anyone?"

"I do because you obviously don't want to tell me. Who?"

Ziva looked away from Tony.

"My sister. Tali."

"Oh...sorry."

"I am not convinced that she was really there at all, but she spoke to me and sang a song that she loved when she lived. She said that I could not see her because I refused to see her."

"I'm sorry. Maybe next time she's around, you'll see her."

"I am not sure that would be a good thing. She is dead."

"Yeah, but...doesn't seem to matter here. In fact, nothing that makes sense seems to matter here. In fact, don't you think something is a little off right now?"

Ziva looked back and her brow furrowed.

"Tony, why are you upside down?"

"I'm not upside down. _You_ are."

From Ziva's perspective, Tony was holding onto a tree trunk and hanging upside down in the air. And yet, now that she noticed, his hair wasn't hanging the way it would have if he was truly upside down. She felt her own hair. Maybe he was right. ...but no, her hair was laying as it usually did.

"Okay. This is weird. We can't _both_ be right side up," Tony said. "Maybe we're both upside down."

"No. Our hair is not hanging the way it should be if that was the case," Ziva said.

"Yeah, but who says that matters at all?"

Ziva thought back to the gun she'd left randomly hanging in the air.

"True. What do we do when we are both not the same?"

"I have no idea. I only had a goal in mind because I saw you down here. So I started climbing. It's surprisingly hard to climb through nothing."

Ziva looked around. Her gun was definitely not visible at all and she looked back along the path that she must have taken. She knew that she should have run into many of the trees.

And yet she hadn't.

' _The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.'_

Both Tony and Ziva looked around.

"Who said that?" Tony asked. "That wasn't Kate."

"It was not Tali. Was it a voice at all?"

"It had to be. How could we have heard it?"

"Perhaps, it does _not_ have to be anything. It can be whatever it wishes," Ziva suggested. "If so, then, who was it that managed to make us both hear a thought?"

"That was surprisingly deep, Miss David," Tony said.

' _The highest exercise of imagination is not to devise what has no existence, but rather to perceive what really exists, though unseen by the outward eye–not creation, but insight.'_

"What is going on here?" Tony asked. "And who would be using quotes from Longfellow to..." He stuttered to a stop.

"What?" Ziva asked.

"How did I know that was Longfellow?"

"Who?"

"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He's an American poet...author...person," Tony said. "I don't know anything really about him, but that sentence we just heard. Longfellow said it...or wrote it, I guess. Why do I know that?"

"Perhaps whoever is thinking these things is helping you think it, too."

"I don't like that idea."

"But if those things are correct, then, we have to think about what we perceive. Can we change our perspective so that we are both the same right side up?"

Tony laughed a little, although Ziva could hear that he was nervous.

"Do we _ever_ think about things the same way, Ziva?" he asked. "Really, this is probably pretty accurate for how we do things. We both see our way as up even though it's completely opposite."

"For the sake of getting out of this place, wherever it is, I am willing to try. I will even try to think of _your_ way being up," she said and then couldn't resist adding, "just this once."

"Okay. How do we do that, though?"

"Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Because I was able to walk much further than I could when I closed my eyes. I walked and walked and did not run into a single tree, even though I should have. If we close our eyes, we can think about what is possible without fighting the perception."

"I'm willing to try."

"Good. We will do it together."

"And we should do something so that we can know if it worked. Uh... I'll grab your hand."

"Very well. Give me a few moments."

"Right."

They stared at each other. Each seeing the other as hanging upside down in the air, still surrounded by trees and the sky.

"On the count of three," Tony said.

"Yes. One."

"Two."

"Three."

They closed their eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Gibbs walked and hoped that he was doing more than walking in place because he was stepping on nothing. That meant that he had no way of sensing progress. He kept thinking about getting to Tim, though, and that motivated him to keep trying. Eventually, he'd pause and open his eyes to see if he could discern any movement, but for now, he was walking, hoping that he'd get to Tim.

...and then, he tripped over something and nearly fell (to where?) but a hand grabbed him.

He opened his eyes and found himself staring up at Tim whose eyes were closed. He definitely looked worse for the wear. There was a large goose egg on his forehead and what looked like blood on his jacket collar.

"McGee!"

"Another voice! Who is it?"

"McGee, open your eyes."

"Aren't they open?"

"No!"

"Oh. Why can I see, then?"

Tim sounded very strange. It was almost like talking to a child.

"You can't. Whatever you're seeing isn't real."

"No. You've got that backwards. Whatever I see now is real. What I perceive is not."

Gibbs had no idea what Tim was saying, but it suddenly dawned on him that he was dangling...up from where Tim was. How was that possible? _Why_ was he dangling up? Tim was holding onto him, but he didn't really appear to be exerting much effort in doing so.

"Will I fall if you let go?"

"I don't think so. The only time I have problems is when I try to walk. There's nothing there and so I fall. But if you walked here, you should be fine. I'm the only one who can't walk."

Again, whatever Tim meant...well, Gibbs had no idea. But he got Tim to let go of him and he didn't fall. Good.

"Now. Open your eyes, Tim. It's Gibbs."

"Gibbs. The other voice said that, too."

"Open your eyes, McGee!" Gibbs shouted.

Instantly, Tim opened his eyes and stared at Gibbs. For a long moment, he just stared, as if trying to figure out something very difficult.

"I... I think I... I think I know who you are," he said, hesitantly, his voice sounding less childlike and more confused.

"You do. I'm your boss."

A brief nod that was quickly stopped as he put a hand to his head.

Tim looked around and then back at Gibbs. Then, his eyes moved around again. Then, back to Gibbs again. Gibbs wanted to yell at him to get on with things, but he didn't. He tried to be patient. He could see what Kate meant about Tim being in bad shape. He definitely had a concussion. Gibbs had no idea how long they'd been here. There seemed to be no such thing as time in this place. His watch wasn't working, but he didn't know if it just wasn't working or if that indicated that time had stopped. Either way, the watch was useless. Tim definitely needed to get back.

"Tim, stop looking around here. That's not going to help. Focus."

"On what?" Tim asked.

"Me. Your jacket. The camera."

"Camera?"

Tim looked down at himself and seemed to notice the camera strap around his neck for the first time.

"NCIS," he whispered. "I know that, too. Who was I hearing before?"

"Kate?"

"Todd. Kate Todd. She's dead. How was I hearing her?"

"Don't know."

Gibbs could see that Tim's mind was starting to connect the dots, but he wasn't sure they had the time to wait for the dots to connect completely. He knew, from personal experience, that it could take a while.

"We need to get moving, Tim," he said. "We have to find Tony and Ziva."

Another slow nod. "I work with them?"

"Yes."

And another slow nod. Impatiently, Gibbs reached up and grabbed Tim's arm. He pulled him down (or was it up?) to his own level. He didn't like the feeling of staring up (or down?) at him...but then, he had to hold tightly when Tim started to fall.

Up.

"Got you, McGee," he said.

"Why aren't you falling?" Tim asked.

"Don't know. Why are you?"

"Because I know."

"What do you know?" Gibbs asked, still holding tightly.

"That only the trees are really here. Nothing else is. There's nothing here but what we perceive...and that changes. Even the trees aren't really trees. Can't you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"The other voice. The one that's not Kate."

"No."

"I'm sorry," Tim said. "It's really interesting."

"Tim, how far will you fall?"

"Until I hit something else."

Gibbs was pretty sure that Tim didn't need any more impacts, no matter what the nature of reality was here. So he pulled as hard as he could and got Tim up to a level where he could sling an arm around his shoulder.

"Hold on, McGee."

Tim obeyed and Gibbs moved his own arm around Tim's waist. He could still feel the pull as if Tim was going to plummet at any moment. He couldn't figure out why Tim would be falling, but he himself wouldn't. It couldn't depend on how they looked at the world. Reality wasn't like that.

But wasn't that what Kate had kept telling him? Reality wasn't reality anymore. Why it wasn't, Gibbs had no idea, but this place wasn't normal.

"Can you pretend that you don't know?" Gibbs asked.

"No. I know."

Figured. Of all the people who wouldn't be able to forget what was true, what was right, Tim was definitely one of them.

"It's like surface tension," Tim said suddenly. "You fill up a glass of water and it bulges over the sides but it doesn't fall until the water remembers that it's a liquid."

Gibbs was pretty sure that it wasn't exactly like that, but he would give Tim a pass on it, given his concussion and all.

"Well, we have to find Tony and Ziva. I'm going to walk. You hold onto me. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Head clearing out at all?"

"It's supposed to be clear?" Tim asked.

"NO!" The last thing Gibbs wanted was to be looking at Tim with a transparent head.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't apologize."

And it was definitely a sign of weakness right now.

He didn't like it, but Gibbs closed his eyes again and started walking. Would he run into Tony and Ziva the way he had run into Tim? He didn't know, but he was willing to try it.

"I'm not falling. That's nice," Tim said. "I like moving horizontally."

Well, at least he knew he was moving this time. He could still feel Tim hanging off him, but he ignored the weight and kept moving, wondering what would happen if he ran into Tony and Ziva. Were they having the same problem?

"Am I heavy?" Tim asked.

"Shut up, McGee," Gibbs said.

"Okay."

He kept walking.

With his eyes closed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony reached out and took Ziva's hand.

"Ready to open your eyes?" he asked.

"I am not sure. What if this did not work?" Ziva said.

"Well, we're still going to be in the same state, then. We haven't lost a thing. Just think really hard about being oriented differently."

They were both silent for a few seconds.

"On the count of three, we open our eyes. Okay?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"One. Two. Three."

Tony opened his eyes and found himself staring Ziva straight in the eye. Right side up.

"Oh, good," he said. "It worked!"

"Yes," Ziva said, with relief. She let go of his hand and looked at the world from his perspective.

Tony smiled at the thought of Ziva willingly trying to see things his way.

"It does not look very different," Ziva said.

"Well, all we get to see are trees and sky. There's no ground. So it could be anything."

"Now, we must find Gibbs and McGee," Ziva said. "And then, we need to get out of here."

"Yeah. I don't like this place," Tony said. "Nothing feels right. It's...unbalanced."

" _That is because it is."_

"Tali?" Ziva said.

Tony saw both the hope and the pain on Ziva's face. She started to look around. So did he, but he saw no one. He suddenly wondered if he _would_ see Ziva's ghost. Would Ziva see Kate if she appeared?

" _Ziva, you are all running out of time. You must find each other and get out!"_

"But how?" Ziva asked. "There is no exit!"

' _There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.'_

That was not Tali. It was the strange not-voice they had heard/perceived before.

"Stop doing that!" Tony exclaimed. "Say something that makes sense!"

" _There are rules. None of us can break them."_

"But why? I don't get it!"

" _You won't get it, Tony,"_ Kate said, suddenly present. _"You can't. Focus on what you_ can _get. There's less and less time to get out. So don't worry about things making sense. Find Gibbs and Tim. Gibbs found Tim. They're together. Get on it!"_

Then, all the voices were gone. Tony looked at Ziva.

"Did _you_ see anyone?" he asked.

"No," Ziva said, sounding a little sad.

"Neither did I."

Then, Ziva seemed to throw off her sadness. She squared her shoulders and looked at him.

"If we must get out soon, then, we do not have time to worry about ghosts. We will find the living and escape."

"But where do we go to look for them?" Tony asked. "I found you, but I could see you from where I was."

"I walked with my eyes closed. It was the only way I could make progress."

"And it doesn't matter what is really there," Tony mused. "Well, then, how about we hold hands and start walking with our eyes closed again? Maybe we'll run into Gibbs and McGee."

"It is worth a try," Ziva said, reluctantly. "Almost anything is worth a try in this place."

"Yeah." Tony held out his hand. "Ready?"

Ziva took his hand and, for some reason, it wasn't even awkward. This was more like two people dangling over the edge of a cliff and praying that they didn't fall than it was illustrative of any kind of romantic feeling.

Then, they closed their eyes and started to walk.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim wasn't speaking since Gibbs had told him not to, but he was looking all around him while holding tightly to Gibbs, hoping he didn't fall again, trying to square what he was seeing with the things that were starting to stir in his brain. NCIS. Gibbs. Tony. Ziva. These were all words that made sense to him. And yet, the world around him made no sense at all. Why? Could it be that this wasn't where they were supposed to be? But then, why were they here? And where was _here_?

"Kate said that you should think about really tiny probabilities," Gibbs said suddenly, still walking with his eyes closed. He sounded a little breathless, probably from having to keep Tim from falling.

"Why?"

"Something about where we are. Also said something about the multiverse."

"Multiverse?" Tim repeated. The word was one he knew. It was right there on the tip of his tongue. He should be able to think something about this. Multiverse and tiny probabilities. What could Kate have meant? And why wouldn't she just say what she meant?

' _Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not know our place again.'_

There was that voice again. It said things that were all quotes from famous people, but they were all about perceiving things.

' _Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes.'_

Something started to rustle around in his mind, something that would explain this. The more he thought about it, the clearer his mind became.

"Boss, I think that..."

That was as much as he got out. Suddenly, Gibbs stumbled.

He stumbled because he ran into Tony and Ziva who had appeared out of nowhere, it seemed.

And Gibbs lost his grip on Tim.

And again Tim fell.

Up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It felt like he fell forever. Maybe he did. In those unending moments as he fell, Tim had a flash of true comprehension. He understood where they were. He understood what they were seeing. He understood that their minds couldn't tolerate what was really there and instead created something else. And just for the briefest of moments, he _did_ see what was really there. He saw it and his mind twisted with the effort of understanding something that couldn't be understood. He understood that both elements were important. The trees _and_ the sky. Both. He understood that his falls hadn't been very far at all in terms of a measurable distance, but he also understood that it didn't matter.

How long his fall actually took, Tim didn't know, but after an eternity of falling, he jerked to a painful stop and he was hanging, midair, with Tony and Ziva both holding onto him, stopping him from falling any further.

_How far did I fall?_

And then, that same...presence that had told him other things arose in his mind again.

' _People see only what they are prepared to see.'_

In that infinite moment where he hung staring at the impossibilities, things so impossible that he didn't even have words to describe what he was seeing, he also saw what was really there, the beings that existed in this place. They weren't physical. This place hadn't existed long enough for physical life to appear. Was it even life? It was existence, but it was an existence so different that there was no real way to comprehend each other.

And he understood why it was quotes he perceived. How else could real communication occur? Was it them finding them and putting them in his head or was it his head supplying the quotes as a way of interpreting the attempted communication?

This all happened in a timeless moment.

And then, the moment ended. It didn't matter that it had lasted forever, that it had taken no time at all. Whatever had happened, however long it had actually been, suddenly, it was over. The trees and sky were back to Tim's relief and those impossible scenes had vanished. His mind relaxed at being able to see something he could comprehend. Once that moment ended, Tim felt himself being jerked upward...downward...whatever.

"Tim, talk to us! At least do something so we know you're not dead!"

Tim looked toward the voice and saw that he was being held by two people. People he knew.

"Tony," he said, a little uncertainly at first, but then, with more confidence. "Tony."

"Yes! Can you stop just hanging there?"

"Uh...maybe?"

Tony laughed with relief and pulled him...down. Tim felt his body suddenly orient differently and he began to fall...down. Luckily, Tony and Ziva were both still holding him tightly and were able to switch their grip so that he didn't keep falling.

"What is going on with you, McGee?" Ziva asked, grunting a little in her effort to keep hold of Tim. "This makes no sense! Why do you keep falling in different directions when we are all fine?"

"We're in a different universe," Tim said.

"Wait, what? You _know_?" Tony asked incredulously.

"I saw it. It doesn't make any sense. We can't understand it. That's why we're seeing trees and sky. And I'm not really in my right mind right now, so I can see it."

"You are not in your right mind, so you can see things right?" Ziva repeated. "How hard did you hit your head, McGee?"

Tim wasn't sure how to answer that question. Nothing was really quite right for him, and he was starting to become conscious of a throbbing headache that was interfering with his ability to be intelligible. Finally, he came up with something to say.

"He does have the mother of all goose eggs," Tony said.

"Hard enough that you can't let me go or I'll keep falling. This universe isn't for physical stuff. It's for..." His words failed him. There just weren't words for it. "...non...physical...stuff."

Tony laughed.

"Considering we've had ghosts talking to us, I guess I can accept that part, but why does that make you dead weight?"

Tony hefted Tim up higher and Ziva pulled his arm around her waist. Tim held on as tightly as he could.

Tim managed a smile. "Because only someone who can't figure out reality would be able to see that what we're seeing isn't really reality. The...beings who are here are trying to tell us how to get out, but they don't understand us and we can't understand them."

"Beings?" Gibbs repeated.

"Do you mean that...voice?" Ziva asked, her eyes widening.

"You heard it, too?" Tim asked, in surprise.

"Yes. Both of us did. The last one was...something about the doors of perception."

"And everything has been about perception," Tony said. "It's all been about what we see."

"Because what we see isn't what's real," Tim said.

"Okay. So...how does that help us?" Tony asked. "Kate seemed to think that we need to get out of here as fast as we can."

Almost as if his words had triggered something, the sky began to darken.

' _How lovely are the portals of the night, when the stars come out to watch the daylight die.'_

"Okay. That seems ominous," Tony said.

"We need to get out of here," Tim said. "There's too much mass. The universe can't take it. It's destabilizing."

"We're destroying the universe...just by being here?" Tony asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay. How do we get out?"

"I... I don't know," Tim said. "I just know that we need to, but it has something to do with... what we think we see."

They all fell silent for a few seconds, Tim still dangling between Tony and Ziva. Then, suddenly. Tony smiled in spite of the darkening sky.

"Can I say it? Just once, Boss?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes.

"Please? I've been holding it in the whole time. Let me say it."

Ziva looked confused and Tim didn't know where this was going, either, but Gibbs gave a resigned gesture and Tony looked triumphant.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Boss."

"Really, Tony?" Ziva asked. "You have been waiting to make a joke about _The Wizard of Oz_?"

"It's too perfect! I had to! I couldn't let the chance go."

"Maybe now, you can focus?" Gibbs suggested.

"Focusing, Boss. McGee?"

Tim looked down at the nothingness below him and then looked around at the unending trees. He thought about what he'd done with the leaves and then he looked at Gibbs who raised an eyebrow.

"I only walked when I couldn't see," he said. "This isn't real to me."

Tim nodded and grimaced as his head started throbbing even more. He closed his eyes and winced.

"Tim, you all right? You're looking pretty pale."

"No, but since this isn't the place we're supposed to be, we can worry about that later. ...if there is a later," Tim said, forcing his eyes open.

The light lessened even more.

"I only could walk with my eyes closed, as well," Ziva said. "When my eyes were open, I was stuck in a very small place."

"And we got to the same orientation by closing our eyes," Tony said.

" _Only when you stopped trying to understand."_

" _And when you allowed something other than what you expected."_

Unerringly, they all turned toward the voices. For the first time, they all saw the two women. Tim found himself smiling goofily in spite of his headache.

"Kate...you were the voice."

Kate smiled at him.

" _Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. We can't stay, but you can't, either."_

"Tali," Ziva whispered.

That was all she said. Nothing more than the name. Tali was not the teenager she must have been when she died. This was a woman in the prime of life. She smiled at Ziva.

" _I have missed you, Ziva. I hope I will not see you again for many years. Shalom."_

"Shalom," Ziva said softly.

"I knew I'd get to see you at least once," Tony said with a cheeky grin.

Kate smiled at him and then looked at Gibbs.

" _Thank you for seeing me, Gibbs,"_ she said.

She looked at all of them, including Ziva.

" _Good luck. Get out of here."_

" _You know what to do already. Make the knowledge conscious,"_ Tali said.

Then, they both vanished.

"I don't know what to do, though," Tony said.

"McGee does," Gibbs said, looking at Tim.

All eyes turned to him, and Tim suddenly felt this pressure to perform.

"Uh..."

He closed his eyes and forced his throbbing mind back onto what he'd been thinking before. The leaves, the wind. If he could make all those changes then...

_I want to see the door back to our universe._

He thought it as hard as he could, knowing that, if it were possible, the door would appear because this universe could be manipulated to that extent.

"Where did that come from?" Tony exclaimed suddenly.

Tim's eyes popped open and he saw a door. It was closed, but it was a door. His mind had conjured up a strange one, though. It was large, wooden and ornate. It was covered with carvings and inset with a spiral of green stained glass that let a tantalizing bit of light through. Light. Real light. Not the fake light that was slowly disappearing. Tim had a bad feeling that when the light was gone, it would be too late.

"It's the way home," he said. "...I hope."

"What?" Ziva asked. "How..."

"No, don't ask that," Tony said. "Let's just go."

Gibbs stepped in front of them all and strode to the door. Tim watched enviously as Gibbs had no difficulty in stepping on nothing while he was still in danger of falling into the infinite sky.

 _Just because I really know that there's nothing there. It's no fair,_ Tim thought petulantly to himself.

Gibbs reached the door and grabbed the heavy, black iron handle. He turned it and then pulled.

The door opened, flooding them with light.

Tony and Ziva moved forward eagerly, wanting nothing more than to get out of this strange place, but Tim pulled back for a second.

"What is it, Tim? It's almost dark. We have to go," Tony said.

Tim was suddenly awash with regret. How many people could say that they'd been to another universe? Not even another planet or another galaxy. Those were places that obeyed all the same rules. They might look different, but they were understandable. This place wasn't. They had to leave it, but...

Without much hope of any kind of success, Tim lifted the camera from around his neck and took a picture, wondering what would register.

Then, a hand on his shoulder drew his attention away and he was looking at Gibbs. To his surprise, he saw a hint of understanding.

"Time to go, McGee," he said.

Tim nodded and stopped resisting.

Gibbs smiled slightly and then turned and walked through the door.

Tony and Ziva walked to the door, had to turn sideways to fit all three of them through at once and stepped through, hoping that this was truly leading them home.

...but then, as they stepped over the threshold, Tony stumbled when Tim's foot caught on the edge and the three of them fell through the door.

Tim closed his eyes tightly, hoping that he wasn't about to get yet another concussion. If he did, he was pretty sure he'd never get back to normal.

"Ow! Tony, you are crushing me!" Ziva grunted from beneath Tim somewhere.

"Hey, I'm not the only one here!"

"That..." Ziva stopped abruptly.

There was a strange sound. It was like when he'd been on a plane taking off or landing and his ears popped. It sounded like that, although it didn't feel like that. It was a sound that was almost _inside_ of him, not outside.

Then, there was another heavy weight and multiple groans.

Tim's headache seemed to increase about a hundredfold and he added to the general chaos with groans of his own. He kept his eyes closed tightly, thinking that maybe it would keep his head from exploding.

After a few seconds, he felt a strong push from beneath him and he rolled away.

...but he didn't start falling which was a definite improvement from before.

Still...were they back?

He couldn't quite bring up an image of what _back_ would look like, but it _felt_ like they could be back. He could hear Tony and Ziva, but their words were garbled in his ears. He wasn't sure if that was his own fault or theirs. He could feel a real ground. ...maybe it was real. He could hear things. He could feel light trying to seep under his eyelids and stab into his brain. It all felt like it should mean they were back.

What if they weren't?


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

He didn't know how long he lay there, but after a while, there was a hand on his arm. He said nothing. He'd felt awful in that other place, but for some reason, he felt a lot worse now.

"McGee?"

He knew that voice.

"Boss?"

"You all right?"

"No."

There was a soft chuckle.

"You going to open your eyes?"

"No. Are we back?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now, would you cut off my head? It's pounding like Niagara Falls is thundering around inside it."

"Don't think that would help, McGee."

"Right now... I don't think I care."

"You will later."

Tim shook his head, even if he knew that Gibbs was right.

"Open your eyes, McGee."

"No."

"Open your eyes!"

To forestall a headslap that would _not_ make him feel any better, Tim squinted and groaned what seemed like the light of a thousand suns hitting him.

But he squinted up at Gibbs and then tried to look around. Everything was new and yet utterly familiar. Thank goodness.

"Duck! Over here!"

Tim winced at the sound and closed his eyes again.

"Oh, dear. What happened, Timothy?"

"I fell," Tim mumbled. "Twice."

"What did you hit?"

"Nothing."

"Clearly, you must have hit..."

"That's what he hit, Ducky," Gibbs said.

Whatever nonverbal communication went on between them, Ducky didn't push it.

"I need you to open your eyes, Timothy. Let me get a look."

"No. The light hurts."

"I'm sure it does, but please, do it anyway."

Grimacing, Tim did as he was told. He opened his eyes and then, there was a bright flash and he closed them again.

"Yes, he definitely has a serious concussion. We should get him to a hospital and have him checked out."

"Come on, McGee. Let's go."

Tim felt hands under his arms and he was lifted to his feet. He tried to open his eyes again and he saw someone extra. A man was sitting on the ground, talking to Tony and Ziva, with Jimmy and the Metro police hovering around them.

"Who's that?" Tim asked, his eyes slipping closed again.

"The Marine we were looking for. He came out just after we did," Gibbs said.

"He said that his father helped him but that his father died when he was in high school," Ducky added.

"Like Kate," Tim said.

"Yeah," Gibbs said. "Let's go."

"The camera," Tim said. "I took a picture."

"I know. Don't worry about that, now."

Tim stumbled as Gibbs urged him to start moving.

"Is he all right?"

"Says he is. A little disoriented, said that he saw a whole bunch of trees but they weren't really there."

"Yeah."

Tim's mind started wandering.

"Maybe it was quantum tunneling. Only that's just supposed to be with particles, not people."

"Just relax, Timothy. We'll have a doctor look at your injuries and see what needs to be done to help you recover."

"Maybe it didn't really happen."

"It happened, McGee," Gibbs said.

"Maybe a wormhole but those are just mathematical. Never any proof that they actually exist and why here and now?"

"Later, McGee."

Tim was urged to sit down in the front seat. Then, he was lying there alone. He tried to open his eyes again and caught a glimpse of Ducky.

"Where..."

"I believe Jethro is going to tell the others where you're going."

"Oh."

There was a moment of silence and Tim's mind went back to where they had been, back to what he had seen.

"Timothy?"

"Yeah?"

"You seem to be very confident about what you experienced."

Tim smiled.

"That's because I'm not thinking clearly."

"Ah. I see."

"Do you really?"

"Not all, I'm quite certain, but enough that I will trust you."

Then, Gibbs was back and getting into the car.

"All right, McGee. We're going to the hospital. They said you should stay awake."

"Okay. As long as I don't have to open my eyes."

"Not required. You ready?"

"Yeah."

Tim felt the car start and then, the movement as Gibbs headed for the hospital. This was real movement. Whatever he had experienced before had not been real movement.

This was real. He had missed it.

But at the same time, it left him feeling strange, almost like he had lost something.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs was relieved to be back where he understood things again, and yet, at the same time, he privately wished that he could have talked to Kate once more.

Now, as he sat and waited to find out about Tim's situation, he thought back to what had happened. He accepted that it _had_ happened, but he felt that he would be better off to forget it and just go on without worrying about it. Would that happen? Probably not for a long time, if for no other reason than that this would become a news story, and he could imagine a lot of eggheads wanting to talk to them about it.

But what would any of them say? According to Tim, what they'd experienced wasn't even what was really there. Really, how impressed would scientists be by a description of trees and sky? Speaking of, Gibbs picked up the camera Tim had been holding and turned it on. Then, he looked through the photos Tim had taken. The first few were of the scene in the park. Then, the very last photo, the one Tim had taken when he had inexplicably tried to stay.

He looked at it and, in spite of himself, he laughed.

It was black. Completely black. There was nothing else. Not even a hint of anything else, and it wasn't because the lens cap had been on. It was just black. It figured. He hoped that Tim wouldn't be too disappointed.

"Boss, is he okay?"

Gibbs looked up and saw Tony and Ziva walking over, accompanied by Ducky and Jimmy. He wasn't sure when Abby would show up, but he was sure it would be soon enough.

"They just took him back a few minutes ago," Gibbs said.

"Ah, then, it will probably be a while before we hear," Ducky said. "I'm sure that, given his head injuries, they will want to make sure that there is no permanent damage. Multiple concussions can be very serious."

They all found chairs and sat down.

"Do you think that's why he was saying all that stuff?" Tony asked.

"And why he tried to stay?" Ziva added.

Gibbs just shrugged. He had no idea why Tim had resisted being taken out of the world that none of them wanted to be in.

"He did say he wasn't thinking clearly," Ducky said. "A head injury can be very disorienting."

"What was it like?" Jimmy asked. "Corporal Daniels said it was really strange, but that there were all these trees that looked wrong and a sky that kept changing."

"That's what it was like," Tony said.

"He said he saw his dad, too. Did you guys see anyone dead?"

Tony looked at Ziva who looked away.

"Yeah. We saw Kate."

"Wow. Really?" Jimmy said, softly.

"Yeah."

Jimmy was silent for a moment, but Gibbs could see he was going to ask something more.

"How was she?"

Tony looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to answer or not, but then, he smiled.

"She looked good. Still snarky."

"That's good," Jimmy said. "I'd hate to think that dying would change who she was."

"You seem pretty chill about all this, Black Lung," Tony said.

Jimmy shrugged. "I saw you guys all disappear, and I saw you reappear. It's not like it was just one guy with a head injury. You all say you saw it and so did Corporal Daniels. It makes more sense to accept it."

Gibbs found that he envied Jimmy's calm acceptance, somewhat. He didn't fight it. He'd seen things. People he trusted had said things. He believed it.

After a few minutes, a doctor came out.

"Agent Gibbs?"

Everyone stood up while Gibbs stepped forward.

"How is he?"

"Lucky. That's how he is," the doctor said. "We're going to keep him in the hospital for a few days to make sure no bleeds develop, but I think he'll recover. He's a little disoriented, though. He kept saying that he hit his head on nothing, but head injuries can easily distort the events around the injury."

Gibbs just nodded. They'd all be required to talk about this, he knew. Why get started now?

"Can we see him?"

"Yes. He's just down the hall, room 236. He doesn't have a roommate at the moment, but that could change anytime."

Gibbs nodded and started walking, knowing that everyone would be behind him.

"Well?" Ducky asked.

"Doesn't change anything, Duck," Gibbs said.

"Of course not."

"We were all there."

"I understand."

They reached Tim's room and Gibbs knocked once in warning, but he didn't pause for more than that before stepping inside. Tim was lying on a bed. No oxygen, no IV. Just him in a hospital gown, eyes opening rather lazily. He managed a lopsided smile.

"Hey, Boss. Why is it that I feel so much worse now than I did before?" Tim's voice was mostly clear, but there was still a little bit of slurring.

"You have time to think about it," Tony said. "We had too much to worry about in that other place. Now, all you need to do is lay there and all you can do is think about how much your head hurts."

"Thanks, Tony."

"Are you thinking more clearly now, Timothy?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah, but things still seem a little weird. The doctor said that's normal. Hopefully, it won't last very long."

"I think you'll find that it might take a few days, but you'll start improving quickly."

"Good. Is what's-his-name okay? The Marine? You said he'd come out, right?"

"He is fine," Ziva said. "Just glad to be back and surprised that the time was so brief. He said it felt like he was stuck there for years."

"And it was only a few hours," Tim said. "But then...there wasn't anything like time in there."

"Unless we brought it with us," Tony said.

Tim nodded and winced. Gibbs could see that Tim would likely be fine, but that all this attention probably wasn't really what he needed right now. Sleep would probably do him the most good. Questions would have to wait.

"You realize that we'll have to answer a lot of questions, don't you," Tony said.

"Yeah, but what will we say? There aren't words for it," Tim said.

"Don't worry about that for now, Timothy," Ducky said. "I'm sure it will be easier than you think."

"Yeah, because no one will believe it," Jimmy said. "It'll be weird for a while, but then, when they can't duplicate it or anything, it'll just be swept under the rug. Will you tell them about Kate?"

"We should say everything that happened," Ziva said...and then, she smiled. "That will make them more likely to dismiss it. As you say, it is too strange to believe."

"Yeah," Tim said.

Unlike the others, though, Gibbs could see that Tim regretted it. He really wanted to talk to him, but not with an audience, so he knew he'd have to wait.

"I'm kind of tired, guys," Tim said, finally. "You mind if I just close my eyes?"

"Not at all, Timothy," Ducky said, quickly. "That will likely be the best thing for you."

"Good. Thanks for dropping by."

Then, Tim fell asleep.

"He's okay. Right?" Tony said in a low voice.

"He will be. But for now, let's give him the time he needs."

Everyone nodded and shuffled out of the room, but Gibbs lingered. Now wasn't the time to talk to Tim in depth, but he shouldn't be left alone after what happened today.

"Jethro?" Ducky asked.

Gibbs smiled and sat down on a chair beside the bed. Ducky nodded in understanding and left the room.

Alone, with the exception of Tim who was sleeping, Gibbs allowed himself the chance to reflect on what had happened, what they all had experienced.

But his mind kept going back to Kate. Had they really been seeing her or had it been some kind of illusion? If it was an illusion, it was a really good one and why would that have been the one chosen, if illusion it was? Wouldn't someone else have appeared to him? Wouldn't someone in his family? Shannon or even one of his parents? Why Kate? And why would she appear to all of them but not to Ziva? Why did Ziva have a sister appear, but Kate for the rest of them? So did that mean she had been an illusion? But if he decided it was an illusion, how could that explain the information she had given? Not even about the world they'd been stuck in but about Tim and what had happened to him. And then, why would Tim have been in the state he was if it was all an illusion? But if Kate wasn't, then, what about the rest of it? Could he really accept that they'd somehow stepped into another universe? Would Tim still say that when he was no longer suffering from a concussion?

_What did he hit his head on?_

At least once he had said something about the trees, but if the trees weren't really there and if Tim was right about there being no such thing as matter there, what could he have hit?

There were so many questions he had, and Gibbs had a hunch that he'd likely not get satisfactory answers to many of them, if any at all.

But if he could at least square it away in his head, if he could get it settled enough in his own mind, he could live without having all the answers.

He just needed something to help his mind accept the insanity they'd all experienced.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_Two weeks later..._

After days of interviews, Tim was ready to take back everything he'd said about the universe he'd literally fallen into and pretend it had been a hoax or something. He'd been released from the hospital after four days with no sign of bleeding but been told to take it easy for at least another couple of weeks before he went back to work. His headache was bad enough that he didn't fight the restriction. However, the scientific community wasn't to be held back by something as mundane as a serious concussion. He'd been asked the same questions over and over and given the same answers over and over.

There would likely be more of it in the future, but the scientists were satisfied that... they wouldn't be satisfied by the answers they got from the participants. In fact, Tim knew that his interviews had been much less rigorous than the others' had been because the assumption was that, as someone with a head injury, his perceptions wouldn't be accurate. Tim was fine with letting them think that way.

So, with the scientific community moving on without him, the journalistic community moving on to the next big story, and life just moving on in general, Tim finally had a chance to sit down and think by himself. Alone.

And he started doing that more and more. Even at work, he was more likely to walk up to the roof to stare at the sky that was, at once, similar to and completely different from that sky he had perceived in the other universe than he was to take a regular lunch with his teammates. He just couldn't set aside what he'd experienced. That moment when he had truly seen a whole different universe.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Where's McGee?" Gibbs asked as Tony and Ziva walked into the bullpen.

He figured that he knew where Tim was, but he felt he should at least ask first.

"Up on the roof again," Tony said, looking worried without admitting it. "We asked him to come with us. Just because he's not out in the field yet doesn't mean that he can't do things with us, but he said no. Again."

"I am worried, Gibbs," Ziva said, bluntly. "I went up to talk to him yesterday, and he wasn't doing anything but staring at the sky. When I asked him what he was looking at, he said it was nothing, and nothing I did made him say anything else. Not even Abby has been able to get him to talk."

"And you know that Abby has been trying," Tony said. "Considering that she's cornered every one of us to get us to tell her every nitty gritty detail there is, I can't figure out what's going on with McGee."

Gibbs nodded. He could see them both wanting him to fix Tim to make it so that everything was back to normal, or as close as it could be after all that. He turned and headed for the roof.

Tim was there, sitting with his knees bent, arms resting on his knees and his face towards the sky. Gibbs followed his gaze upward and saw nothing that reminded him of the place they'd been before. The sky there had been too changeable, too _alien_ to resemble this sky in anything but the most basic features.

"Butt getting sore yet?" he asked as he walked over.

Tim looked over at him and smiled a little. Gibbs supposed that approach was slightly different from the worried looks he was getting from Tony and Ziva.

"A little," Tim said.

Gibbs sat down beside him.

"What's going on, McGee?"

"Nothing."

"That's a lie and everyone knows it."

"Then, why ask?"

"Because no one knows what the real answer is."

Tim smiled again.

"I don't, either. Does that make you feel better?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think it would."

"What's going on?"

Tim was quiet for about a minute. Gibbs could tell he was trying figure out what to say so he didn't push it. He just waited.

And waited.

Until he figured that Tim needed a little push.

"What did you see there?" he asked.

"That's the problem," Tim said. "That is what's going on."

"What?"

"Trying to find the right words for what I saw. I mean, mostly I saw what you guys did. The trees, the sky. Those things that our minds came up with to make sense of what couldn't make sense. ...but for just a moment, I saw what was really there, and I can't make any sense of it. I can't forget it, but I can't describe it. I can't even fit it in my brain. They asked me questions about it, but there literally are not the words for it."

Tim sighed and leaned back against the building.

"People say that all the time, you know. They say that there aren't words to describe it, but it's usually not true. The words exist. They just don't have them themselves. With this... the words really don't exist. I can't even explain it to myself, let alone anyone else. And even worse, I can't stop thinking about it."

Gibbs pulled a copy of the photo Tim had taken out of his pocket. He handed it over. Tim took it and looked at it. He smiled.

"At least, I understand _this_."

"You do?" Gibbs asked, surprised.

"Yeah. There was no light in that place."

"Then, how did we see?"

"I don't know, but there must have been something else making it possible. But there was no light so the sensor chip in the camera wouldn't have detected anything. It was just like taking a picture in a cave without a flash. Black. Nothing more."

Gibbs smiled at Tim so easily understanding something he hadn't even thought much about.

Tim stared at the black photo for a while. Then, he leaned back against the wall again.

"How do I get over this, Boss? What do I do? We were in another universe! Not another galaxy, not another solar system, not somewhere else on the Earth. Another universe. Something completely out of our experience. And it was amazing and disturbing and shocking and yet completely incomprehensible all at the same time."

Gibbs knew that Tim was very different from him. He was willing, even eager, to set aside what happened and focus on reality as he knew it. Tim wasn't like that. He needed to work through what happened first, and his concussion probably hadn't helped matters. It had made him able to accept things being different, but now, it meant that he was looking back on that time through a distorted lens.

"Well, you're one of five people who have been to another universe."

"Yeah."

"You have something no one else has."

"You're saying I should feel special?"

Gibbs smiled. "Don't you?"

Tim ducked his head.

"Yeah. Sometimes."

"You can't explain it? Stop trying. Just accept that it happened and let it not make sense."

"I don't like it when things don't make sense," Tim said.

"You think you're telling me something I don't know?"

"No."

"Good."

"I read this quote once by Oliver Wendell Holmes. He said, 'Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.' That's how I feel. I feel like, no matter what else happens, I can't ever go back."

"Do you want to?"

"Sometimes."

"You can't."

"I know."

"Then, accept it." Gibbs stood up and held out his hand to help Tim up. "And, McGee?"

"Yeah, Boss?"

"Stop hitting your head."

Tim smiled. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

They started walking toward the stairwell.

"And stop making Ziva and Tony worry about you."

Tim laughed a little. "I know that they don't understand what I'm doing."

"They understand. They don't like it."

"I just hoped that, if I took enough time to think, I'd find some way of...understanding it."

"You can't."

"I know."

"Then, stop trying."

"I can't do that, Boss," Tim said. "But I can stop dwelling on it so much."

"Good."

They walked in silence and Gibbs knew that Tim wasn't done. He could sense Tim gearing up to say something he was sure that his boss wouldn't care about, but he _really_ wanted to say it. Gibbs decided to let him, hoping that it would be enough.

"You know, a lot of scientists don't like the idea of multiple universes. It seems like too complex an explanation for what we have in this universe. Others like that it gets rid of the problems of the anthropic principle."

"McGee..."

"I mean trying to explain why the universe we're in is perfectly suited for us," Tim said quickly.

Gibbs suppressed a smile. He didn't even have to say it anymore.

"But there's a physicist, Max Tegmark, who says that it's just as simple to say that there are infinite other universes as it is to try to explain them away. The cosmos is just weird and we should accept that."

"Can you?"

"I'm trying."

They got back to the bullpen.

"McGee! Are you all right?" Ziva asked.

"I'm trying to be," Tim said, honestly.

"Meaning?" Tony asked.

"Meaning that Gibbs said I could feel superior to you, Tony," Tim said, smiling.

The joke was a little forced, Gibbs could tell, but it was a start, and he could see that Tim would be all right eventually. Tony and Ziva had worried enough that they'd be supportive, but without being too mushy.

All in all, it was the best they could hope for. Gibbs sat down at his desk and got back to work.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Everyone else had left. Gibbs had sent them home early. Tim was still not back to full form, and they weren't working any particularly onerous cases at the moment.

Gibbs sat at his desk and stared over at the desk that had been Kate's desk. Why Kate? Of all the people who could have appeared to him, why her?

" _Because who else would be able to browbeat you while still giving the necessary information, Gibbs?"_

Gibbs sat up and looked around. He couldn't see her, but he would swear that he'd just heard her.

Then, the elevator dinged and Ducky got off. Gibbs quickly covered his disappointment.

"Jethro, what keeps you here at such a late hour?" Ducky asked. "I would have thought you'd be gone."

"You, too, Duck."

"I had some forms to fill out. A tedious task that I cannot yet foist off on Mr. Palmer."

A moment of silence.

"Just thinking."

"About your strange adventure, like Timothy has been?"

"Not like McGee," Gibbs said. Never would the two of them ever be thinking alike.

Ducky chuckled. "No, I suppose not."

Gibbs hesitated and then decided to say it.

"I saw Kate, Ducky. Why her?"

"Why not?" Ducky returned. "She was an important person to you, someone you occasionally listened to." Ducky appeared to hesitate himself. "And perhaps you would be able to focus more with her appearance than with...anyone else."

Ducky didn't have to say the name. Gibbs heard it all the same.

"You're accepting this pretty easily."

"Jethro, as one who regularly speaks to the dead, I would be rather hypocritical if I denied the possibility of one of them speaking back. It might take something as strange as another universe to make it possible, but I have to grant the possibility."

"Ziva saw her sister."

"Yes, she spoke to me about it once, wanting an outside opinion on it, so to speak. I believe it deeply affected her, more than she would admit."

"Yeah."

"I see that you can relate."

"Yeah."

"In contrast, Anthony has been willing to talk about everything that happened, with the exception of Caitlyn, but it doesn't seem to upset him as Tali's appearance upset Ziva."

"Difference circumstances," Gibbs said.

"Yes. And very different people. I must admit that I envy you all the experience. I have wished that I had disregarded your order to remain outside so that I could have seen what you all saw."

"Just trees and sky, Ducky."

"And a departed friend. And a place so alien that your own minds couldn't tolerate it. What a strange and wonderful opportunity you've had."

"Maybe."

"No. It is. Jethro, this is not something that can be duplicated except through a million-to-one chance. It is unique. You four and Corporal Daniels have seen so far beyond our world that you will always see things just a bit differently from the rest of us, much like the astronauts who have looked down on the Earth and have seen its place in the solar system. One cannot help but be changed by that."

Which was just what Tim had said. Of course.

"Regardless, Jethro, your experience is one that you should not allow yourself to forget."

"Couldn't do that anyway, Duck."

"I suppose not. In the end, I am thrilled to have you all back safely, and I hope that, as you continue to think about it, you'll consider sharing your thoughts with me."

Gibbs smiled. "Always willing, Ducky."

"Good."

Then, they both headed home.


	8. Chapter 8

**Epilogue**

Ziva sat in her apartment and pulled out a single picture. Tali as she had been just before her death. Untainted as she had been by violence, it was a tragedy that Tali was the one who had been killed by the mindless cruelty. Ziva had thought of that time over and over, but now, when she thought of her sister, she was surprised that the image of her had changed from the teenager she had been to the adult she had seen for far too short a time.

And seeing her grown had been strangely comforting, as if the image of her sister changed from how she had been meant she still continued to exist in whatever form. Somewhere.

"Tali, I wish you were here," Ziva whispered.

She thought she heard something on the wind, snatches of a song, but before she could do more than turn toward the window, it was gone.

Still, she smiled.

As strange as the experience had been, Ziva felt somehow changed. For the better.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony was sitting and staring at a photo. It wasn't Kate, although he'd done his share of that, too. It was a forest with trees. Only it was still wrong. Nothing could quite match up with what he'd seen. Initially, he'd thought that the problem was simply one of color and changes, but it wasn't. Now that he was back in the world he understood, he could see that what he'd seen had been even more wrong than he'd realized at the time. It was completely wrong. Subtly wrong, but completely.

And that was okay. He was finding that he didn't mind it. It surprised him that he didn't, but he didn't. Maybe it was because Kate had still been so... _Kate_ that he couldn't worry about it. He didn't know, but it was fine.

His phone rang. He looked at the display and grinned.

"Hello, Miss David. What can I do for you?"

" _Convince McGee to come with us and get dinner tonight."_

"Why? Something happen?"

" _No. I just am thinking that this is the time to try."_

"Why?"

Ziva sounded different. Good different, but different.

" _Something in the air tells me."_

"Something? Or some _one_?"

" _Perhaps both. Call him."_

"Why me?"

" _You will be annoying enough that he will give in."_

Tony laughed. "Okay. Sure."

He hung up and thought about what he'd say.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim was staring at the black photo again. He knew how digital cameras worked. They were designed to gather light. ...but what else might they also gather...if there was something else besides light? And yet, he had no idea of what that might be or how he might be able to bring it out. There was really no way.

Gibbs was right. He had to be willing to set it aside.

His phone rang.

Reluctantly, Tim set the photo aside and answered his phone.

"What's up, Tony? A case?" Tim asked.

" _Nope. Time for you to rejoin this universe and hang out with us again."_

"Huh?"

" _Dinner, Probie. We need you to live in this universe, not the other one."_

Tim smiled.

"Don't have any choice with that, Tony."

" _Well, then, you could acknowledge it by doing something with us."_

"You sure you want that?"

" _Yes! Absolutely. You just have to stop trying to get back something you can't have."_

"I don't really even want it, you know."

" _Well, then, stop being stupid and have fun in this universe!"_

"Well, with that kind of encouragement, how could I say no?"

" _I can't think of any way. I'll pick you up."_

"I can drive, Tony. It's been three weeks."

" _I didn't say you couldn't. I just said I'd pick you up."_

"Okay. I'll do it."

" _Excellent. I'll be over in a few minutes."_

"I'll be ready."

" _Good."_

Tim hung up and then looked at the photo again. He could never forget that moment of seeing something completely out of his world, completely alien and unintelligible.

But maybe Gibbs was right. Maybe it was okay that he didn't understand it. Maybe he could just treasure the experience and keep living here.

After a few minutes, there was a loud knock on the door. This was reality, and he was happy with it.

He set the photo down and headed out to join them for dinner.

...but he'd still keep an eye out for something.

...something more.

FINIS!


End file.
